ABSTRACT
This chapter distinguishes between some distinct views on the nature of theology of revealed theology, natural theology, descriptive theology and philosophical theology and looks at what kind of theological criteria are entailed by these different views. The standard alternative to ‘revealed theology’ is the ‘natural theology’ embedded in the so-called ‘Enlightenment project.’ Unlike revealed theology, natural theology excludes every appeal to criteria that are not inter-subjectively available to all. Unlike revealed theology, Norman Kretzmann’s kind of philosophical theology tests its conclusions by methods and criteria that are accessible to all: ‘analysis and argumentation of all the sorts acceptable in philosophy and the sciences.’ Thus it does not withdraw into an intellectual ghetto where believers alone are able to determine the validity of its findings. The innovative re-interpretations and creative developments proposed by philosophical theology should therefore be clearly ‘embedded’ in the historical ‘conversation’ about the meaning of the heritage of faith that constitutes religious tradition.
